‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ Spoilers and Discussion

Published 4 years ago
by
Ben Kendrick
, Updated May 21st, 2011 at 10:59 pm,

While our readers are already discussing the latest installment in Disney’s theme-park ride turned feature film franchise in the comments section of our Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides review, this is the place where you can discuss spoilers about the movie without worrying about ruining it for people who haven’t seen it yet.

If you’re posting comments here, assume that anyone in the conversation has seen the movie – if you haven’t seen the movie, I would recommend you don’t read these comments here until you have.

Discuss away!

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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick and let us know your thoughts on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

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Kahless 3 years ago

I didn’t see the entire movie but only the last, maybe 15 minutes. Did anyone else feel like they totally ripped off Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? “This cup takes life, this cup gives life”, and then Blackbeard is turned into a skeleton, just like in Indy.

A LOT of poor choices, especially with regard to Blackbeard. He had a beard and all, but he was hardly the imposing figure of menace and dramatic gravitas that he needed to be,(not that anything could be darker than the lighting of the sets.)

Knowing even a tiny bit of history made it impossible to suspend my disbelief. Blackbeard’s fate is well known, as well as that of his ship (I wonder when they REALLY found that anchor, the timing of the “discovery” seems all too convenient)

Mermaids I can believe in, but plexiglass in the 18th century, not as much so. The Spaniards show up over a century too late to trash the fountain, who’s powers had so many stings attached that it wasn’t even worth drinking from anyway.

The Mermaid and the Missionary made a cute couple, but did nothing to advance the plot. Was there even a plot? seemed more like a scavenger hunt/race themed reality show.

The theater where I caught the midnight premier had a free screening of the first Pirates movie immediately prior. The difference was like night and day (and not just the lighting).

I suppose Tides still achieved it’s goal so far as the Disney suits were concerned; selling Jack Sparrow Halloween costumes to the other half of humanity and Jack Sparrow voodoo dolls to everybody.

Since they will keep making these movies until Johnny Depp looks like Keith Richards, I can only wish them better luck next voyage. Maybe Jack Sparrow can cross swords with Captain Morgan (IE Captain Hook W/O the hook), Merchandising plunder galore AAAAarg!

i thought it was a pretty good film. the new characters made it feel like a whole new adveture, and the mermaids were the best part of the film. really good film hope they do more, and use new characters, and creaturesfrom pirate tales.

I liked the mermaids to, especially the idea of the one good on syrena. what bugs me is the end between her and the preist philip. is it implying that she killed him or was she taking him to someplace safe?

I was altogether disappointed by this movie. The first few scenes were great, making it feel like the original. The scene where Jack and Angelica-disguised-as-Jack made me laugh because i saw it as a nod towards Duck Soup (bonus points to whoever gets that). After that everything fell apart. I felt like the entire series is tiring of itself.

the mermaids were my favorite part too. The subplot with Philip and Syrena was way less tumorous than will and elizabeth’s. They didn’t get nearly enough screentime, but I hope their weird cliffhanger ending gets resolved.

I enjoyed it. The only problem I had was a wish to see more of the back story about Blackbeard and his sword. When he came out and the ropes started moving around, I was wondering what the hell was going on. Took me a minute to realize it had something to do with the sword and the ship.

I thought it was ok, but didnt like the fact they didnt show Blackbeards attack upon the Black Pearl commanded by Barbossa, how can u not have shown this. In fact did anyone else notice their was not one cannon shot fired from any ship in this film, not between the Spanish and British fleets,nor between the Queen Annes Revenge and Black Pearl as mentioned by Barbossa in the movie. This is Pirates of Caribbean right. I would have liked to have seen Blackbeard and crew ambushing some other ships on the way to the Fountain of Youth, but no, we couldnt have that either, I think they could have done more with Blackbeard, I think they wasted a prize villian, could not they have kept him for the next Pirates film. On Stranger Tides was ok, but it could have been so much better.

I just got back from seeing this a second time, and I liked it even better! The mermaids were great, as were all the new characters. I can’t wait to see what the next one will bring! Barbossa as Captain of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Jack’s got the Black Pearl back (as well as many other ships)

And the scene after the credits!!! If you left too early then here’s what happened. Angelica was sitting on the island and the voodoo doll of Jack washed up on the beach. I was like “Oh snap!”

It was a good movie, I’d say. But I just wish that they had made Blackbeard more menacing and evil, similar to Davy Jones. They should have shown Queen Anne’s Revenge attack on the Black Pearl so we could have seen Barbossa fight and lose his leg. And seeing Barbossa dressed in a Brit uniform the whole movie made him seem less of a pirate to me. Not seeing any ship fights kinda bothered me. Aside from those complaints, this movie was a good installment to the Pirates movies. I look forward to seeing Barbossa and Sparrow along with that creepy little monkey together again for a new adventure.

I liked the mermaid scene a lot and loved the design of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Another thing, when the missionary named the mermaid Syrena pretty much everybody in the theater laughed. (I lived in Puerto Rico where spanish is the main language and in spanish mermaid is “sirena” so naming her that was stupid and redundant)

hated all the bs between the christian guy and the mermaid, that part could have been done alot better. everything else tough was pretty good, and it should be since the blonde and orlando have f***ed out of the franchise.

one part i didn’t understand was why sparrow left the women on that island, it didn’t really make sense to me.

lastly, anyone wanna speculate as to where sparrow will head in his next journey and who’ll be the villains etc ?

One thing everyone needs to know- This movie was given HALF the budget that At World’s End was given, and also restricted on filming time because Disney wanted to save money. I feel that if it wasn’t a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I probably wouldn’t have liked it so much.
This movie reminded of a scene in the 3rd movie when Jack escapes from the British ship but shooting a cannon and swinging himself onto the Pearl, while also taking out the British ship’s mast. One of the British soldiers asks Lord Becket : Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?
You never really know if Jack is being a weird drunk or really thinks things through, but this new movie proved he has a strange way of making everything fall into place

Okay I saw an early preview of it last Tuesday and I saw it again yesterday. I just wanted to be sure of some things and a free ticket is always good. This movie while a much better story then the last two films was doomed before they even started production. Its a good movie but you can not expect it to be anywhere near as good as the first one. That was a special movie and its one that people care about. Oh it will make money and do very well. The only thing fresh was the Murmaids and Blackbeard.

I thought it was pretty entertaining, I agree that seeing it in 3d was pointless. There were some funny moments in the film, I laughed pretty hard when Jack said “I support the Missionary’s Position”.

Some stuff that I didn’t like, That whole relationship with the mermaid and the missionary completely detracted from the movie, there were hardly any scenes with them and when they were on screen it was incredibly lame. Especially when Phillip screams out “Her name is Serena!” or whatever, it seemed kinda psychotic when I don’t even remember them talking before.

Overall it’s not a bad flick, unfortunately I don’t think they’ll ever match the magic of the first movie.

choreography and cinematography were what mortally wounded this movie. I was so confused why jack did most of what he did in this movie when in the first 3 it seemed he had reasons behind every movement. Case in point > Why when he was on top of the carriage escaping did he step one foot over to the other carriage and then back to the original. there was NO reason for it. i might be nit picking but it just felt like they just ended up saying “meh that was good enough”

To me, it seemed we were 2/3 of the way into the movie before Johnny Depp truly became Captain Jack. He and Rush both seem to have struggled a bit in getting back into the roles and spent most of the film out of character. In matters of costume, I found Depp’s hair distractingly different than in the previous movies. Way too much and not colored right. I also found Rush’s makeup distracting. He looked more decaying in this one than in Black Pearl. A friend suggested that it was to show how poorly Barbossa adopted the niceties of British life (wigs, powdered faces, etc.). I seriously hope that’s what they were going for, else there’s a makeup artist or two that needs a good firing.

I thought the mermaids concept was extremely well done. In a single scene, they managed to relate the mythology of the mermaids, as well as open your thoughts up to pondering the larger world of mermaids. If only there was a singing crab!

Overall, I enjoyed the film, and found that it exceeded my expectations. Generally when a sequel shows up with only a fraction of the cast, it is because the studio has committed to direct-to-dvd quality cash grabs. I don’t think this is the case, and it does excite me about the further adventures of Cap’n Jack and Barbossa.

It was slow and plodding, I kept waiting for it to actually get some life and have a lot of great action but it was short and far between if any.

Black Beard (Ian McShane) was too short and not half as imposing as the real pirate and if you cant make a film that shows him striking terror into the hearts of his enemies then you have failed. Edward Teach was 6’3″ and a large imposing figure with a huge black beard and a mane of hair. Ian McShane is 5’9″ and very slim and his beard looked like it have given up the fight long ago. They didnt have him portray Black Berd as all the history has shown him to be.

The biggest waste was Penelope Cruz who looked as if she was simply along for the ride, not to mention multiple shots had to be reworked to try and keep her obvious pregnancy from showing. She didnt add anything to the movie, hell the young priest was a more interesting character.

overall the movie was good, however i think they raced the plot and sacrificed character development or the sub plots (phillip and the mermaid) and thats why blackbeard didnt do much. the worst part of the movie was the fact that it was in 3D and i watched most of the movie without the glasses and it made no difference.

i was so excited about the whole mermaid thing and Syrina that i was basically jumping up and down during the mermaid scenes, but it felt rushed, it felt undeveloped and besides the older characters no other character was fully developed, i would have loved to know more about the Syrina and Phillip but the movie failed to please me

I felt the movie was kinda alright. It was quite fun. However, the chase scene in London lacked the excitement one expects from a PotC movie. Blackbeard is such a menacing villain. Depp, Rush, Cruz were good. Amazing chemistry between Sparrow and Angelica. The climax could have been better, especially after witnessing something grand in its predecessor. Great not to see Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley turning up in their stale love story. I felt that was one of the major factors that made the plot of the second and third movies complicated. I was planning to go for the 3D version, but my friends advised me against it. Reading from the comments, I think I gotta thank them. I may go for the fifth part, if they are planning to make it.

Penelope Cruz had no sparkle, and I got the impression that she was putting up a brave front with pregnancy discomfort… I like Ian McShane, but I expected a lot more from his character…

If the budget was tightened, why was it shot in 3D? I did not see it in that format because I thought it would not add anything to it. According to an article in the LA Times about James Cameron (who supports 3D wholeheartedly), filming in 3D adds $30,000,000 to the production. Wasted $$$…

More money needs to be put into the script. The writing for the 3rd PotC (Lands’ End) was carried out on the beach as it was shooting, and it shows….. So much filler in “Fountain of Youth’! So many scenes could be cut with no loss to the film… And way too dark… Got tedious being in the dark so much…. Where were the great characters and the laughs? I did not care one bit about any of them. No depth in their performances, but the script was so weak, you can’t blame them. Capt Jack didn’t seem to care about Angelica, no sparks between them. What would you expect when their only encounter was he thought he’d wandered into a brothel? At least Turner and Swan appeared to have feelings for each other. Don’t get me wrong, I think a ‘love interest’ with Depp’s character isn’t necessary or even believeable. He’s a rogue pirate out for adventure and booty (that does not mean ‘women, folks!). Mermaids? Not developed enough and not sure if it would work, anyway. Missed the other characters that made the first movie fun. The Spanish hunt down the Fountain of Youth only to destroy it??? Oh, yeah… Even for a pirate yarn, it defied any reality.

Ditch the 3D and put it in to a great script…. The 3D was probably only there because audiences may expect it when other summer movies have it… Use it only when it enhances the production…

I hope I can look forward to a better Pirates experience in the future… They need more of that fun scene in the first Black Pearl where Capt Jack walks onto the wharf as his boat sinks. Unforgettable!

Now you see, I TOTALLY disagree with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THOUGHT EVERYTHING ABOUT THE MOVIE WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I luv Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz together- they make me laugh but take no offence coz this is MY opinion- savi?

The movie was totally cool,great,fantastic,fabulous,amazing and much, much more! It started with a bit of mistery, followed by some humour. The ending was also very good but it will only work out if Disney makes a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5′. In addition, if you get a choice, then try to watch it in 3D, because the effects are simply amazing! 10 out of 10!!

I felt the movie failed to compare, and was a money maker. Too much magic magic and too much silliness made me feel like I was watching a movie about a socorers traveling circus boat. The mermaids were the best and fit right in but their purpose in the movie felt rushed. Too many random seens to “develop” characters and Jack lost his piracy and became a clown. Barbossa was good. His story dumb. ALL relationships between characters failed accept Barbossa and Jack( though how you forget mutiny and stranding and getting shot in the chest…) mermaid clergyman fail.miserably.hated those parts. time/spacial travel changed as well, obviously. what took one days with a head start took another hours with a day behind.